A Split Day For Me

I'm actually finishing this blog from home this afternoon as I split my day between RBG and the home "office". My intent this afternoon is to continue developing and refining the design for our future Wellness Garden. This new garden space has been talked about for over 12 years and we are now focusing on a specific area with specific intent (in regards to usage, ornamental contribution and program potential). This space would not just be all accessible but would be developed for active use with horticultural therapy initiatives for a wide audience. We've had some recent donations and increasing interest in this garden and our Garden Development Committee and Board of Directors are forging ahead with these refined plans based on all of our previous work and research. Exciting. This morning though, I went in to the Horticulture Center and took this first photo (left) of one of our 25 garden supports awaiting it's next vegetable selection this summer. These beds at the Horticulture Center have been used for trialing annuals initially but have been dedicated to growing and displaying vegetables for the past seven years. Janice works with Master Gardeners to maintain this space and much of the past produce has been donated to area food banks. These 10' tall towers have had heirloom pole beans, gourds, squash and this year will have vigorous tomatoes tied/trained on to them. Gardening up! To the right is an ice encased ninebark (Physocarpus) in front of the Visitors Center which is right under the eaves (no gutter). This ice will be gone soon with May temperatures coming back by mid-week.

We had a nice turnout of Grumpies this morning including Bob A. (to the left) painting the new tops for the refurbished garbage and recycling bins. It was amazing how deteriorated these had become but our carpenters did a nice job with this project. Jim and Vern were also here this morning starting on the next task which is to make another 20 of our popular obelisks (sold in the gift shop and at plant sales). Del worked on some carpentry as well and both Terry (right) and Marv did some more work on the PVC tubes that will be supporting our bowl planters. The guys also are getting some of our yard supplies (potting soil, etc.) arranged and in the sun to thaw out for use quite shortly. Urban and Pat headed out to do some more pruning and Pat shifted to some painting later in the morning. Dick H. was back and worked on cutting and bending more of our aluminum sign stakes. Dr. Gredler was in to work on the yellow Adirondack chairs (directly below) and Larry worked on some different projects. With my early departures this week, I wont be able to report on afternoon RBG activities (obviously!).The winter shots included here are from this weekend. Above is a solitary winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) peaking out. Many plants generate a small amount of heat with growth. I noted the melted snow around snowdrop (Galanthus sp.) clumps out in the gardens and skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), with very early blooms (probably blooming already), will melt its way thru snow as well. Of course, the mild temperatures later this week should do the trick and the white stuff will be another memory. To the right is the winter adonis (Adonis amurensis 'Fukujukai') that I've featured very recently in the blogs. This early bloomer will be shining again shortly. To the left are some 'Karl Foerster' feather reed grasses (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) that normally will stay rigid thru the winter and had done so until Friday night. There are very few ornamental grasses that have the winter stature to remain upright after a damp snow like the one we experienced. This snow made me feel better about our decision to cut our grasses at RBG a bit earlier than usual. If we had waited, they would be less fun to cut back being all crumpled, matted and flattened. To the right is the winter form of a young Kentucky tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) near the arboretum. This tree normally has a rugged branching structure which in this image is accentuated with that sticky snow. I'm not sure what variety this is yet as the older females will produce seed pods (we've seen none yet). There are some good male varieties out there if the pods are considered messy.

At the bottom is one of our six new signs that we'll install out in the gardens this spring (with their new bases/holders). This sign is for our All-America Selections (AAS) collection and will be installed in the garden space east of the visitors center. See www.all-americaselections.org/ for more information on this neat organization. A generous grant covered the costs of our first 20 garden area signs (four years ago) and it was nice to add these new ones for 2012. We'll also be installing some neat signs (similar in style) in the parking lot islands along with our new tree plantings. It's nice to take all of our garden interpretation, including plant labels, to the "next level."